Interesting turn of events, do you not agree?
by bk2817
Summary: James fell for his teacher once but she rejected him. Now, four years later he meets that certain greeneyed redhead again in a most unexpected way. But still, he finds that she is out of reach. What's a Marauder to do? REPOSTED AND REWRITTEN
1. Chapter 1

"Well, that's it for today." Ms. Evans told the students at the end of the lesson, "Please gather the cushions together and place them neatly in that corner." She pointed, distracted by her thoughts.

Things had changed all of the sudden. Since she had graduated Hogwarts, for five years she had traveled the world working for the Ministry of Magic as a diplomatic witch until her old headmaster had asked for a favor. Dumbledore had asked her to teach Charms at her old school as the former teacher, Professor Flitwick, had requested for a sabbatical to spend time with his dying mother. She had now been on her deathbed for almost a year. Lily didn't mind though and of course said yes to the job and had gotten quite excited about coming back to Hogwarts, it was now early May, so she'd been there for almost a year, it was hard being the only young teacher there and she could only catch up with her friends through letters and on occasional Hogsmeade weekends.

But despite all that she was quite content, she liked the idea of teaching and the students took her with open arms and most of them liked her, even a fair bunch from Slytherin.

Being back in Hogwarts made her feel nostalgic, remembering how easy life was once, how she sat with her friends on the side of lake talking about how boys smelled bad and then a few years later who was the hottest bloke at Hogwarts that month.

She missed being so carefree. Now she was 22 years old and felt like all her years of freedom had passed by in a heartbeat.

"Excuse me, Professor Evans?" She was snapped out of her thoughts by a male voice next to her, she turned to see a student by the name of James Potter. In her daze she hadn't noticed the fact that most of the students had run out as the bell rang, except for young Mr. Potter that stood in the corner she'd pointed to earlier with his hands full of cushion and he was obviously losing his balance.

Lily quickly got up and helped him place the cushions neatly in the corner, as she placed the last one on the top she spoke smoothly "You know, you could've just used magic."

James' back was turned to her but she saw the back of his neck turn bright neck. "Oh, right. Right, I didn't realize." He answered stuttering slightly.

"Was there anything else?" Lily asked as she eyed him, James stood in front of her clearly wanting to say something.

"Yes, Professor. I think I may need some help in this class."

"But school will be over in less than a month, have you been having problems all year long?"

He nodded with a baffled look on his face, like he didn't know whether or not to nod.

"Why didn't you come to me sooner, James?" She asked him softly, making his palms sweat.

"I- I don't really know. I kind of just lost track of things all of the sudden. Please, I really do need help, I need to pass the M.U.G.G."

Lily sighed and looked at him for a second before reaching out for her agenda, "I'm free next Thursday night, come to my office then and we'll discuss what you need to practice in." Smiling at him she wrote down the appointment for the day.

"Thank you, Professor." He smiled awkwardly and ran his hand through his hair clumsily.

"You better get to you next class, James." She told him, collecting her things from the desk.

James muttered "Oh, right! Bullocks!" and ran out. Lily walked towards the open door and giggled faintly, leaning against the doorframe she saw him running through the corridor. She didn't close the door 'til he was out of sight.

During the next few weeks, Lily and James met on a regular basis and practiced everything James seemed to have trouble with, which was a lot more than Lily had expected, he hadn't been this bad ever before, she often thought how on earth this had occurred. She knew he was an excellent student with great scores in every single one of the classes he was in.

Late in May, Lily sat in her office grading papers. She looked out her office window; the afternoon sun shone through it and blinded her temporarily. At the same time she heard a knock on the door; she stood up, walked towards the door and opened it. There stood a very happy James Potter.

"Well?" She enquired excitedly.

"I did well, the examiner even said so! I didn't forget anything!" He beamed at her.

"That is excellent, James! Congratulations!"

They stood there for a moment, smiling at each other until Lily spoke, "Well, I better get back to work. Well done, James. I'm very proud of you." She smiled and moved to close the door, but James reached his hand out and stopped the door from closing.

Lily looked at him confused and he asked "Can I come in for a second?"

She nodded slowly and drew back the door as she did so. Once James was inside, she took a seat behind her desk and motioned with her hand for James to sit down in the chair opposite hers. Instead of sitting down he stood still some feet away from the desk and stared fixedly at Lily. After a short while he opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again just as the words were about to escape his mouth. He repeated this action a couple of times before starting pacing slowly with a thoughtful look on his face.

"James?" Lily spoke after a few minutes' silence, "Is there-"

"I've been lying to you." He interrupted her.

"What?" She asked confused.

"I'm not bad at Charms. In fact I'm really rather good." He nodded, closing his eyes and paused for a second. "I just pretended to be bad to… well, to spend time alone with you."

He looked at her and saw her staring dumbly at him,

"I remember the first time I saw you during my first year. You were a sixth year Prefect and helped me find the Gryffindor House. I had a crush on you during all of my first and second year here," He continued and smiled sheepishly at the last thing he'd said, "And then when I got back in third year you were already finished, so I finally realized that there were a bunch of other of beautiful girls here at Hogwarts, so I forgot about you. That is," He looked at her again and noticed how her expression had softened and how she clearly was aware of what he was about to tell her, and went on "Until last September, when I saw you sitting at the Teachers' table, tossing your hair aside each time you laughed at Slughorn's bad jokes. I was mesmerized. You blew me away, for weeks I couldn't think about anything but you, I couldn't see anything but you, other girls didn't interest me at all. But, there was no way I could ever tell you how I felt, I mean, you being a teacher and I being a student. And then I thought of a plan with my friends, one of them suggested I could take extra Charms lessons to get closer to you and eventually tell you the truth. I thought it was the perfect plan but then my so called Gryffindor courage bailed on me. I couldn't, I was afraid of rejection, which is a very unusual thing for me to be," He pointed out, "During the exam today, I realized that this would be my last chance, perhaps _ever_ to tell you my feelings."

James fell silent and let Lily digest what he'd just told her, she blinked a few times and swallowed before looking up at James,

"So you're saying that-"

"That I'm in love with you, yes." He answered firmly and nodded once.

"James, this is really-" She sat up straight, shaking her head, but James knelt down beside her and turned the chair so that she was facing him and held her hands as he interrupted,

"Lily," She shivered when he said her name and the hairs in the back of her neck rose, James lifted up her right hand and kissed her palm.

"No, don't. I'm your teacher. You're my student. I'm a lot older than you!" She whispered but still she let him hold her hand.

"Only five years." He reasoned.

"Still, that's five years! You're still just a child!" This time she withdrew her hand but James quickly grabbed it again and held it firmly, yet softly.

"No, I'm not. I'm of age. I'm seventeen."

She considered him for a moment, caressing his cheek and said "Like you said yourself. You're seventeen, you're _only just_ seventeen. You don't know what love is yet."

James lowered his face for a moment, then looked up and moved towards her face. Before Lily knew it his lips were set firmly against her own. Just as she was about to close her eyes and lean into it, she realized what she was doing, pulled back and slapped him square on the cheek.

"Wha?-" But he didn't get a chance to finish as Lily rose from the chair, with an angry look in her eyes.

"Leave." She said stiffly and then repeated "Leave." A little stiffer.

James stared at her for a moment or two and then left the office hastily.

_-Four years later-_

"Will you hurry up Padfoot? We're late as it is!" James yelled out to his friend from the entrance hall in their small apartment.

"I know, I know!" The other young man yelled back just as loud as the other as he came out from the bathroom, "The thing is just… it's like my hair has a mind of its own today!" Sirius exclaimed as he continued adjusting his hair, gazing at his reflection in a mirror that hung on the wall. "Good God! Why is this happening to me? Why on this day of all other days?" He cried out and threw his hands up in the air.

James stared at him for a moment. Was he joking? Was his best friend for a decade seriously fussing over the fact that a few of his hairs weren't swaying the way they were supposed to?

He walked up beside Sirius and looked into the mirror and gazed upon the reflection of the two.

"I don't see nothing wrong with your hair." He then said after a second or two.

"Well of course you don't. You hair always looks like a bird nest gone bonkers."

James raised a brow at that comment a Sirius quickly added, "A _nice_birdnest gone bonkers. What I meant is that you're used to it. It's your trademark, you know? My trademark is the way my hair is always perfect. Always. Perfect." He gestured with his hands to emphasize the fact that the hair was _always perfect_.

The pair of them stood and stared at their reflections for a few more moments until James said again, bewildered and shaking his head.

"I don't see nothing wrong with it."

"Well this lot here!" Sirius practically screamed and pointed with his finger above his right ear, James leaned closer and looked at the spot Sirius had pointed to.

"Nope. I don't see anything out of the ordinary."

His friend gave a frustrated sigh, started patting the spot he'd just pointed to lightly and asked "What time is it?"

James glanced at his wrist watch and muttered "Nine past eleven." Just as the words escaped his mouth both of the men turned to each other and yelled out in unison

"Fuck!"

Sirius grabbed their shoes and James their wands, tossed Sirius his and soon they'd apparated away.

Once they'd arrived at the Ministry, they tumbled into the phone booth and gave their names and reason for coming. Once they'd gotten in they ran towards the elevator while struggling to get their shoes on and just managed to get in before it closed.

The time couldn't have gone any slower, James thought. The elevator made three stops before it got to the floor the two friends were headed for.

Running out and making a sharp right they soon got to the Auror Department. James slowed down and took a deep breath. This was it. This was what would determine whether James was qualified for Auror training. This moment would be possibly one of the biggest- His thoughts were interrupted by a nudge from Sirius.

"You all right, mate?"

"Wha'? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Let's go!" As he took a nother breath he headed for one of two doors, a sign on it reading 'Auror Training – Introduction & Interviews'

James reached out for the doorknob and slowly opened the door, followed by Sirius.

They walked into an average sized room filled with people and at their arrival silence, everyone had turned around to see who was late, a small woman sat at a desk in front of the entrance and demanded "Names?"

"Sirius Black. And James Potter." Sirius answered noticing how his friend had become distracted by something at the end of the room.

"You're late." The woman said sternly as she took their respective files and placed them on top of a pile of other parchments, James' file on the very top.

He groaned, "Yes, we know."

Sirius grabbed his friend by the elbow and steered him towards a couple of free seats.

When they'd sat down a female voice spoke. "As I was saying, my name is Lily Evans and I'm Junior Head Auror here at the Auror Department. I'll be doing your individual interviews. Elle, could you hand me the files please." The tiny woman got up from her desk and handed Lily the stack of parchments. Lily read the top file.

"James Potter?" She looked up and gazed around the room until meeting his hazel eyes with her own emerald green ones. They gazed at each other for a short moment before Lily broke the stare and said "Follow me." She walked towards the door with James on her heels and led him into the opposite room.

As she turned to close the door she thought to herself, 'Typical. Awkward. Awkward. Awkward!' and closed it.


	2. Chapter 2

James sat down in the seat Sirius had pushed him in, distracted by a familiar redhead standing a few feet in front of him, clearly annoyed by the disturbance but James didn't listen as she resumed talking. He couldn't help but stare straight into her eyes, the same eyes that had almost burned a hole into him four years back. Suddenly the eyes landed right on his, and for a moment they held contact. Lily tore her eyes from him and muttered something James couldn't hear and headed for the door with haste.

Sirius nudged him in the ribs with his elbow, signaling him to follow her and so James swiftly got up and followed her through the door on the other side of the hall.

Lily had let James into a small room in a shade of dirty gray. A desk was placed in the middle and two chairs were placed on either side of it. The only light that came into the room was from a blurred window on the wall opposite the door. Other than that the room was empty, excluding a file cabinet in the far right corner and a steel trash can in the far left.

James walked over to the desk before he turned around to see Lily standing in the doorway slowly closing the door behind them, with her back turned to him.

He studied her from behind, as far as he could see, her choice of wardrobe had not taken any drastic changes since he last saw her four years ago.

She wore a tight, waist high, dark blue business skirt that reached down to her knees and a tugged white buttoned blouse, black patent leather heels and her hair was tied up loosely into a high bun, a few strands escaping and circling her face.

It all complimented her, doing every single one of her curves justice. At her height, 5 feet and 7 inches and with her womanly curves it was hard not to admire her body. James tore his eyes from her as Lily had closed the door and was slowly turning around to face him. She leaned against it coolly with a glint in her eyes he could not read, clutching the stack of parchments up to her chest.

"James." She greeted and absorbed every inch of him; his facial features had not changed much since school, he still had the same mischievous sparkle in his hazel eyes, his lips curled up into a smirk, the same strong jaw and high cheek bones, his messy hair as uncontrollable as ever. He had grown about three inches over the last few years, she saw, remembering how he had only been about half an inch taller than her back in the day. Another thing she could not help but notice was how the tight dark green sweater he was wearing fell close to his well trained abs, torso and upper arms. He wore a pair of skinny black jeans and Lily could recognize the old, worn out Chuck Taylor-All Star shoes he always wore.

"Professor." James he spoke in a deep voice, nodding and snapping her out of her thoughts yet again.

"You needn't call me that anymore."

He decided to play it cool and leaned up to the side of the desk before responding "What should I call you then?"

"Oh, I don't know… Lily? Miss Evans?" She suggested.

James grinned at her uncertainty; he enjoyed the way the situation clearly made her feel uncomfortable.

"All right, I think I'll call you Ms. Lily then." He nodded again and gave her a lopsided smile as he adjusted his black thick-rimmed glasses.

"Hmm. I see you haven't changed your shoe attire for the past 4 years." Lily remarked nonchalantly and moved in direction of the cabinet behind James.

She stood for a second looking at him enquiringly, waiting for him to move out of the way for the room was so small, and she would have to either have to go around the desk or most definitely have to rub up against him to get to the cabinet.

James, who was fully aware of that fact, merely raised a brow and stood still. Lily sighed inaudible and made her way, rubbing against him as expected. As their bodies touched James could feel as the scent of her filled his nostrils how his mind started wandering off. Closing his eyes dreamily, he gave a soft moan and drew in the light smell of what he thought smelled like summer.

As Lily had squeezed through the small space between the wall and James and had desperately tried not to touch him, she couldn't help but to hear a strange sound coming from him. Deciding to ignore it she dropped the pile of parchment onto the desk and hurried towards the file cabinet, glad to have an excuse to turn her back at him.

Trying to sound nonchalant she murmured, "Longbottom... Pawloski… Ah, here we are. Potter!"

By the mention of his name James jumped, he'd stood there all this time with his eyes closed, looking as daft as a dung beetle. Cursing wordlessly he looked casually to the spot Lily stood, happy to see that she had apparently noticed nothing and silently thanked the spirits.

"Take a seat, please." Lily said distractedly, not looking up from viewing the file she'd dragged up from the drawer and had already sat down in the chair closest to the window. James sat down opposite her and tried to recollect the cool demeanor that had come to him earlier when they entered the office.

"Your full name is James _Argyle_ Potter?" Lily asked bemused.

He felt his face redden at the mention of his middle name, damn mothers and their so called fantastic sense of naming. But James did not want to give his old teacher the chance of humiliating him twice, so he quickly gathered the pieces of his shattered pride and glued them together mentally, before answering.

"Yes, that would be correct. James _Argyle_ Potter. I've got a bit Scottish in me." He winked as flashed her his lopsided grin.

Now it was Lily's time to redden in the face.

"Right… right." She lowered her head swiftly and started going through papers as though she was searching for something. Finally she grabbed the parchment that had been on the top.

"Okay, here." She handed it to James.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Answer the questions and then hand it to me." She told him as if it could not have been more obvious.

"Haven't I answered these questions already? I mean, my application contained most of these questions as well as a history of my schoolwork."

Just as James said the word school, it was time for both of them to blush.

"Yes well, I don't know why, Moody thought it'd be a good idea to see if all the information is correct. He's gone a bit of his rocker since he got the wooden leg if you ask me." He chuckled at that, making Lily smile shyly.

There they sat for a while, James scribbling down on the parchment and Lily sometimes glancing innocently at him.

That is, until he declared, as he handed her the piece of parchment. "You still dress like a teacher, you know."

"And you still dress like a seventeen year old boy." She replied in a cool manner, not looking up from the parchment he'd just handed her.

"Touché." James said impressed, she smiled at him roguishly and for a second they gazed into each other's eyes.

Lily gave a small cough and started talking about the responsibilities, patience and the self-trusting one needed to even survive Auror Training.

There she sat opposite him, babbling and James couldn't help but admire how fast her mouth moved when she spoke. The light from the blurred window behind her made her almost angel like, bathing her in brightness so it looked as though her hair was on fire.

He interrupted her jabbering with a question "Why aren't you teaching any more?"

Lily looked at him surprised for a second as if she didn't quite understand what he'd just asked her.

"Flitwick's mother died the summer after you graduated."

"Oh." Was all he could think of answering.

"Yes so," She tried to continue but was interrupted by him again.

"How did you end up at the Auror Department?"

"Well, I was kind of sick of not having a stable home and didn't really want to go back to my old job as a diplomatic witch where I would have to live out of a suitcase. I suppose Dumbledore felt guilty for making me unemployed so he offered to pull a few strings and eventually got me an interview with the Auror program, and I was fortunate enough to get Moody as my mentor. I passed, along with Kingsley Shacklebolt, with the highest scores so we were made partners and occasionally got to assist Moody on a few missions. One day we were sent out by ourselves to protect the Minister and there was an attack. That day Kingsley and I captured together 13 Death Eaters and three months later we were made Junior Heads of the Auror Department."

"Wow." James replied admiringly, making Lily shift uncomfortably.

"Yeah well," She changed the subject. "I must admit, I expected to receive your application a lot sooner."

"Oh yeah. Yes, I initially only intended on taking a break for a year but, uhm…" Now it was James' turn to shift uncomfortably, "My mum passed away in an accident about eight months after graduation and my dad didn't really take it too well. I just felt like I couldn't leave him all by himself while I went so I postponed it and for about two years I just lived at home with him and my best friend Sirius, you remember him?" He asked not really waiting for an answer, coughed and then continued.

"What he hadn't told me was that he had been sick even before my mum passed and one day he didn't come down from breakfast. When I went to his room to check on him he was lying in his bed completely still..."

He trailed off, not moving his eyes from the parchment placed on the desk in front of him avoiding Lily's gaze.

"Oh dear! I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have..." She shook her head in shock.

"It's fine, you didn't know." He murmured in response still avoiding her gaze.

Lily enveloped his hands in hers, making him look up at her solemn face and she softly said "I'm sorry for you loss."

"Thank you." He whispered.

Lily slowly let go of his hands after a moment and stood up from her seat.

"Well, James. You will receive owl post in the next few days whether or not you made it into the program." She smiled at him sweetly as he stood up.

James gave her a slight smile and headed for the door, just as he grabbed the handle, he felt her hand touch his left shoulder and her lips press gently against his the nape of his neck. Closing his eyes he enjoyed the moment for the short time it lasted, soon it was only her hand touching him.

"Goodbye James."

He turned his head slightly and gave her a small grin, "Goodbye Ms. Lily."

Her soft giggle was the last thing he heard before closing the door behind him.

Lily leaned up against the closed door and sighed dreamily as she closed her eyes. It took her three seconds to realise what she had done _'What on earth just happened?'_ She spoke to herself mentally, _'You must control yourself. This cannot be like last time! You must not kiss your students. Even though he's not your student and even if it's just on the neck! On the neck? Oh dear God, this is not good.'_

She kicked the door behind her, turned around and smacked her head on it twice. After that she adjusted herself, walked over to the desk and picked up the next name on top of the stack.

_Sirius Black_

She grunted and thought to herself _'Great'_

She opened the door, prepared to call out the name only to find two men she recognized as James and Sirius, whispering, clearly not noticing her standing there in front of them.

"Mr. Black." She interrupted their conversation. "You can come in when you're ready" And went back into the not so spacious room, leaving the door behind her open.

_Someone reviewed that there was inconsistency with Lily and James in the story. I just want to make one thing clear. I'm not writing this based on what Rowling said they did after Hogwarts, she said that James and Lily both went to work for the Order straight after Hogwarts and never had actual jobs.  
__Here, in this particular story, Lily is six years older than James and you could say that this is a student/teacher relationship fanfiction with a definite twist. So if that was the inconsistency you were referring to I hope this cleared some things. GREAT thanks and review please._


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